Global Footprint Network and WWF warn that until the end of the year, our consumption will consist of “nibbling away at the natural capital of the planet”.
Thursday, July 28, humanity will have consumed all that the planet can produce in one year without running out and it will live the rest of the year on credit, warned the NGOs Global Footprint Network and WWF.
To put it figuratively, it would take 1.75 Earths to provide for the needs of the world’s population in a sustainable way, according to this indicator created by researchers in the early 1990s, and which continues to worsen.
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“Nibbling away at the planet’s natural capital”
This date corresponds to the one wherehumanity has consumed all that ecosystems can regenerate in a year“, According to the two NGOs. “During the remaining 156 days (until the end of the year), our consumption of renewable resources will consist of eating away at the natural capital of the planet.“, said Laetitia Mailhes of Global Footprint Network during a press conference. This does not even take into account the needs of other species living on Earth. “We must also leave spaces for the wild world“, she adds. The “exceedingoccurs when human pressure exceeds the regenerative capacities of natural ecosystems. According to the NGO Global Footprint Network, which monitors this measurement, it has continued to widen for 50 years: December 29 in 1970, November 4 in 1980, October 11 in 1990, September 23 in 2000, August 7 in 2010.
In 2020, this date had been postponed by three weeks under the effect of the confinements linked to the Covid-19 pandemic, before returning to the levels before. This ecological footprint is calculated from six different categories, “crops, pastures, forest areas needed for forest products, fishing areas, built-up areas and forest areas needed to absorb the carbon emitted by the combustion of fossil fuelsand is intimately linked to consumption patterns, particularly in rich countries. For example, if all humans lived like the French, Earth Overshoot Day would have occurred even earlier, on May 5, 2022.
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“Our food system has lost its mind”
WWF and Global Footprint Network point the finger in particular at our food system. “Our food system has lost its mind with an overconsumption of natural resources, without meeting the needs of the fight against povertyon the one hand, and on the other an epidemic of overweight and obesity, comments Pierre Cannet, of WWF France. “The ecological footprint of food is considerable: the production of food mobilizes all categories of footprint, in particular crops (necessary for animal and human food) and carbon (agriculture is a sector that emits a lot of greenhouse gas)“, detail the two NGOs.
“In total, more than half of the planet’s biocapacity (55%) is used to feed humanity“, they note. More precisely, “a large part of foodstuffs and raw materials are used to feed animals and animals that are consumed after“says Pierre Cannet. In the case of the European Union,63% of arable land (…) is directly associated with animal production“, he gives as an example. However, agriculture contributes to deforestation, climate change by emitting greenhouse gases, the loss of biodiversity and the degradation of ecosystems, while using a large part of fresh water, say the NGOs.
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Based on scientific recommendations, they plead for a reduction in meat consumption in rich countries. “If we could cut meat consumption in half, we could move the overshoot date back 17 days.“, argues Laetitia Mailhes. “Limiting food waste would allow the date to be pushed back by 13 days, which is not negligible.“, she adds, while a third of the food is wasted in the world.
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